Donatella Versace revisited one of her house’s most iconic creations at Milan Fashion Week, as she celebrated the 20th anniversary of the slashed-to-the-naval ‘Jungle Print’ dress worn by Jennifer Lopez on the red carpet – a moment which is credited as the reason Google Images was invented.
“The whole world wanted to see this dress,” Versace said of the original before the show, which saw models parade around a 30ft bronze palm tree in an arena wallpapered with digital screens flashing the print. Lopez famously wore the dress to the Grammys in 2000 and it was considered one of the most daring looks of its time – even if we might not bat eyelids at such ubiquitous ‘naked dresses’ these days. The following morning a record number of people tried to search for the gown using Google’s article listing format, when all they really wanted to see was the pictures.
“Google images didn’t exist 20 years ago,” Versace explained. “This dress, with Jennifer, it inspired Google to create it. It was the first time fashion inspired technology. Today we live in a technological world, but back then, one event prompted the creation of a new tool that now has become part of our lives.”
Lopez herself made a surprise appearance on the catwalk, wearing the exact same creation and looking as incredible in the gown as she did two decades ago and warranting a standing ovation from even the most seasoned, stoic fashion editors. Her song Love Don’t Cost A Thing was the soundtrack, fabulously ironic in Versace’s gilded world where achieving high glamour costs quite a lot. That jungle print was reworked into suits, shorts and mac jackets, as well as red carpet-ready iterations; a draped bodycon dress with hard power shoulders and a belly button-skimming plunge neck jumpsuit. The motif had been expertly exploited on everything from green stilettos with spiky leaf sequins, to ‘Squalo’ trainers, to chunky sole sandals.
“It was a joyful moment when I first did this dress,” Versace said. “It was a wonderful time. The world had the same reaction: jaw dropping.”
Before the finale began, Versace showed, at the age of 64, that she is completely au fait with Google’s latest technological advancements, summoning the dress to arrive on the catwalk with an “OK Google” call in the voice Assistant app. First the screens began to flicker with just some of the 23million images that magic up in seconds if you type in ‘J Lo Versace dress’. Then, Versace’s voice demanded to see the real dress, at which point Lopez appeared.
“I am proud of this moment in Versace’s history,” she said. “Absolutely Google has helped fashion. Anyone can Google Versace and know all about what we do. I use it all the time.”